Fuel cells are useful for generating electricity. Fuel cell components facilitate an electrochemical reaction between reactants such as hydrogen and oxygen. Typical fuel cell systems include pumps or blowers for circulating the reactants within the system.
Solid oxide fuel cells, for example, use a high temperature blower to circulate reactant gas to the anode components of a cell stack assembly. Such blowers are typically custom made to operate at high speed to deliver the required performance and are capable of withstanding high operating temperatures to avoid heat loss. The requirements on such blowers tends to introduce additional expense into a fuel cell system.